Saturday Music for a Comic Strip Female Super Criminal

THE FUTURIST! once watched a very enigmatic 1966 film directed by Joseph Losey derived from the British adult comic strip by Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway called MODESTY BLAISE. The film starred Monica Vitti as the very mod woman of very many talents, those mostly being of wily seduction and criminal genius. She and her companion, Willie Garvin, get entangled in some strange nefarious doings involving a foppish Dirk Bogarde and his crew of evil cohorts including Mrs. Fothergill a woman who loves to kill and dresses in men's suits. The script was written by the creator of the original comic strip, but it was mangled and redone and never bore a resemblance to his ideas. The movie's incoherence and odd direction may be attributed to the creative team veering from the original material and adding their own weird spin. The film was made around that time of BARBARELLA and DANGER: DIABOLIK; a pop art bit of campy fun filmed for genre lovers. It just didn't work, though.


However, the movie title song that describes and warns us of Modesty's many talents is very 60-ish and bouncy and more fun than the film. Here it is done by Virginia Vee courtesy of the now forgotten Scopitone music video jukebox craze. Dig the crazy clothes and moves, dear Readers.

"She'll turn your head
though she might use a Judo Hold ... "

Listen:


MODESTY BLAISE
performed by Virginia Vee